Ficlet: Pockets Full of Stones
As background, currently in the Fade Bar Lilian Hawke is recovering from the aftermath of helping destroy the mage prison Aeonar. She was physically and magically wounded, and right now doesn’t even have the ability to enter the Fade to dream.
In the meantime, those who love Lilian are waiting for her to recover…including her lover Kathil.
Kathil sat on the solitary, rickety chair at the top of the watchtower, looking out over the wide valley that separated the ridge they lived on from the mountain Talo’s Eye. The sky was clear and the moon was full, the landscape below spreading out in shades of black and grey. Little was moving in the valley.
She rolled a small ball of lightning across her knuckles, the magic making a soft crackling sound. The lightning was entirely blue-white. Not even a hint of purple.
It was so strange, not having Lils’ magic entangled with hers. She’s alive, she reminded herself, as she had to do every time she reached for her magic and felt only the sharp bite of her own, without the smoky undertones of Lils beneath it.
It had been two years, in her world, since she had been alone like this.
A distant grumble and rustle of wings in her mind reminded her that she was not, in fact, alone. That she was never alone. Quiet, you, she told the dragon in the back of her head. It made a huffing noise in return, but thankfully it didn’t start screaming.
She got the strangest feeling that it was trying to help, in its own incomprehensible way. How bad off do you have to be to have the thing trapped inside your skull with you trying to help?
Kathil sat back in her chair, the wood creaking faintly. Nothing stirred in the valley. If there was anything able to see the light on her fingertips, it did not draw closer. She opened herself a little more to the Fade, and the lightning ball brightened and sizzled, spinning on her fingertip.
The shadow of what was no longer there lingered, an ache in her chest that wouldn’t leave her be.
And time goes quicker
Between the two of us
Oh, my love, don't forsake me
Take what the water gave me
Lay me down
Let the only sound
Be the overflow
Pockets full of stones
‘What the Water Gave Me’, Florence + The Machine